Dietary zinc-di-tripeptide enhances zinc relative bioavailability and reduces fecal zinc losses compared to zinc sulfate, without compromising performance of growing pigs
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Zinc (Zn) is an essential trace mineral involved in key physiological processes, and organic Zn sources are proposed to have higher bioavailability than inorganic forms. This study aimed to evaluate the bioavailability of a Zn-di-tripeptide (Zn-di-tripep) chelate compared to Zn sulfate (ZnSO4) on growth performance, apparent total tract digestibility of Zn and Zn concentrations in feces, serum, liver, and bone in growing pigs. Ninety male pigs (Landrace × Large White, 63 day-old, 25.44 ± 0.302 kg body weight [BW]) were used in a randomized complete block design based on BW with 10 pigs per treatment over a 60-day period. Pigs were allocated to a 2 × 4 + 1 factorial design, composed by 2 Zn sources (Zn-di-tripep vs. ZnSO4), 4 levels of dietary Zn (30, 60, 90, and 120 mg/kg diet), and a negative control (no supplemental Zn). Digestibility was assessed using acid-insoluble ash as an internal marker, and relative bioavailability was estimated by linear slope-ratio regression. Data were analyzed using Zn source and level as fixed effects, blocks as random effects, and linear and quadratic polynomial contrasts to assess dose-response. Pigs fed Zn-di-tripep or ZnSO4 showed improved performance (P ≤ 0.05) compared to unsupplemented pigs, particularly for average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI). From day 0 to 30, pigs fed Zn-di-tripep exhibited a quadratic response (P ≤ 0.05) for ADG and gain-to-feed ratio (G:F), and a linear increase (P ≤ 0.05) in final BW (FBW) and ADFI. From day 30 to 60, both sources promoted linear and quadratic increases (P ≤ 0.05) in FBW, ADG, and G:F, and 120 mg Zn/kg diets resulted in better performance. Fecal Zn concentrations increased linearly (P ≤ 0.05) with dietary Zn level. Pigs fed Zn-di-tripep showed a slight decrease and increase in fecal Zn (P = 0.105) and liver Zn (P = 0.109), respectively, and higher bone Zn concentrations (P ≤ 0.05) than ZnSO4. Serum Zn increased over time (P ≤ 0.05) in all Zn-supplemented pigs, with a trend (P ≤ 0.10) toward higher concentrations in pigs fed Zn-di-tripep than ZnSO4. Apparent total tract digestibility of Zn showed linear effects (P ≤ 0.05), with positive values only for Zn-di-tripep. In conclusion, dietary Zn-di-tripep supplementation improved Zn digestibility, serum and tissue Zn concentrations, and reduced fecal excretion compared to ZnSO4, suggesting greater bioavailability by allowing a reduction in Zn supplementation (∼34%), without affecting pig performance.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".